The Talibans admit killing of Journalist MK Atiff, pictured here and say more Journalists will be targeted soon.

LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has condemned the assassination of a journalist in Charsadda and expressed concern that despite official assurances, journalist killings have continued across the country.

Mukarram Khan Atif, who worked for the Voice of America among other media organisations, was gunned down on Tuesday by Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants who said that the journalist was killed for creating anti-Taliban propaganda in the foreign media.

It is exceedingly unfortunate that despite repeated assurances by the government to protect journalists, a senior journalist was killed, said a HRCP statement released on Wednesday. “The TTP’s acceptance of responsibility for the ghastly deed and its admission that the victim was targeted for his professional work underlines the perils journalists are increasingly being exposed to.”

At least 17 journalists and media workers were killed in Pakistan in 2011, the HRCP said, and one has already been killed in the first month of 2012. “That Pakistan is a perilous place for journalists is old news, since we have been labelled the most dangerous country in the world for a few years running now. All indications suggest that this too would be a bad year for Pakistani journalists.”

Mentioning Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s advice to journalists last year that they should arm themselves for their own safety, the HRCP said that journalists and civil society still expects that authorities should show more resolve in protecting journalists and tracking down their killers.

“The government must realise that if it has tried anything to ensure protection for journalists, it clearly has not worked. It is not entirely unreasonable for journalists to question the government’s commitment to protecting them in view of its failure to bring to justice the killers of even one of the many journalists killed during its tenure,” the statement said.

Due to prolonged illness of this blogger you were not alerted by our part for last quarter of the 2011. In the new year of 2012, we have decided to run this blog jointly with our friends once again. We have started a new page in the name “PAKISTAN DAILY TERROR DIGEST” , which will give you a current account of the Terror Trips by our Peace Loving Terrorist Brothers !

What may we do while Allah made them all insane !!!! This is maintained in this way.

A bus carrying Shia pilgrims, which was going from provincial capital Quetta to the border town of Taftan, was stopped by the gunmen in Mastung district of Balochistan, an area considered to be the hub of banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

The gunmen ordered the passengers out of the bus and lined them up before firing at them indiscriminately.

At least 26 people were killed and six others were seriously injured, Deputy Commissioner Shah Nawaz Nosharwani told the media.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Quetta, located about 40 km from Mastung.

The four gunmen who carried out the attack escaped on motorcycles. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mastung is considered a hub of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a notorious sectarian group that has carried out many attacks on Shias across Pakistan.

There was confusion about the total number of passengers in the bus, with reports putting the figure between 38 and 50.

The Shias were travelling to Taftan, a border town from where they intended to cross over to Iran for a pilgrimage.

Members of the minority Shia community have been repeatedly attacked in Balochistan, including in the provincial capital Quetta.

A policeman stands beside the wrekage of a bomb blast site in Peshawar. -AFP Photo

Medium Islamic blast took away five injuring thirty in Pak Peshawar. High chances for more casualties.

Bomb kills five, wounds 28 in Peshawar

Monday 19th September 2011 | Shawwal 20, 1432 | Dawn News.

Fire Fire everywhere...Islamic peace where ever.

PESHAWAR: A bomb killed at least five people and wounded 28 others at a market selling CDs in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar on Monday, officials said.

“We have received five bodies and 28 wounded people from the blast site,” Doctor Rahim Jan, who works at Peshawar’s main government hospital, told AFP, adding that there was one woman among the dead.

Provincial government minister Bashir Bilour confirmed the death toll and told AFP at the hospital that police had informed him that the bomb was probably planted in a motorcycle.

Peshawar police chief Imtiaz Altaf told reporters at the scene of the blast that “the target was the CD market.”

Jalalud Din, a 35-year-old lawyer, who received head injuries from the blast, said he was buying sweets for his children.

“There was a huge blast as I was buying candies for my kids. I lost consciousness after my head struck a wall,” Din said.

Earlier Monday, a Taliban suicide car bomber flattened the house of a senior counter-terrorism police officer in Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi, killing eight people including six policemen.

Nearly 4,700 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked networks based in the country’s northwestern tribal belt since government troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in 2007. Courtesy : Dawn | AFP.

Allah followers preferred a Car this time to make a Jihadi device to blast for Islamic Peace .

The Power of Islamic Jihad. Pakistani security personnel gather at the car bomb blast site in Karachi on September 19, 2011. - AFP Photo

Taliban suicide blast in Karachi leaves eight dead

Monday 19th September 2011 | Shawwal 20, 1432 |DAWN eAFP

What a depth of Islamic Jihad. More than three feet penetration of Islam under the earth.

KARACHI: A car-borne Taliban suicide bomber flattened the house of a senior counter-terrorism police officer in Karachi on Monday, killing eight people including six policemen.

Senior Superintendent Aslam Khan, who was unhurt in the attack but whose home was destroyed, told AFP he had been threatened by the Pakistani Taliban and knew that he was the target.

The militant group claimed responsibility for the attack and said Khan had been targeted for arresting, torturing and killing Taliban members.

Khan heads the counter-terrorism unit of the Police Crime Investigation Department in Karachi, investigating Islamist militant cells in the port city of 18 million people, which is a vital hub for Afghan-bound Nato supplies.

“It was a car bomb attack on my house,” he said. “I was receiving threats from Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP). Taliban are involved in this attack.” Several neighbouring houses were also wrecked in the attack, an AFP reporter saw, with four cars being badly damaged and a two-metre deep crater left in front of Khan’s home.

An AFP reporter at the scene saw rubble, mud and pieces of glass scattered over a large area in the upscale residential neighbourhood.

“Eight people including six policemen have been killed and several others were wounded,” Shoukat Hussain, another senior police officer, told AFP. “A child and a woman were also killed. It was a car suicide attack.” Speaking to reporters outside the remains of his one-storey bungalow, Khan said: “I woke up from sleep and saw fire around. I ran towards the other rooms of the house and saw my family safe but bewildered.

“This was a cowardly act of Taliban. I am not scared of Taliban. Let me tell you that I will not spare them in future.” Karachi city police chief Saud Mirza confirmed that Khan had received TTP threats, including one recent written threat.

“We claim responsibility for the attack. Aslam Khan has killed a number of our colleagues and also arrested and tortured many more,” TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP in a phone call from an undisclosed location.

“He was on our hit list and he is still on our hit list,” Ehsan said, giving names of several other police and crime investigation department officials also targeted. “They will be killed soon,” he vowed.

The TTP has members across the country and the attack was planned by a local branch, Ehsan added.

Witness Naeem Shaikh said he was taking his children to school when he heard a huge explosion.

“I went across a lane and saw this house destroyed and huge flames around it,” said Shaikh, who lives in the area.

He saw the bodies of a boy, later identified as a second-year school pupil (aged eight or nine), and his mother lying near the house. “The boy’s schoolbag was lying abandoned nearby,” Shaikh said, choking.

Karachi, Pakistan’s economic hub, is currently undergoing its worst ethnic- and politically-linked unrest in 16 years, with more than 100 people killed in one week alone last month.

The gang wars have been linked to ethnic tensions between the Mohajirs, the Urdu-speaking majority represented by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, and Pashtun migrants affiliated to the rival Awami National Party.

The nationally ruling Pakistan People’s Party, which was elected in 2008 after nine years of military rule, insists that civilian authorities are capable of controlling the bloodshed, despite calls for military intervention. Courtesy: Dawn | AFP | Agencies.

Clebrating Eid Day : Pak Sunni Style.

Quetta blast kills 11, injures 20 on Eid day.

A police official says a car bomb has exploded in Quetta, killing at least 11 people.

QUETTA, Pakistan ||Shawwal 01, 1432 || Wednesday, 31 August 2011 – A suicide car bomber attacked worshippers in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday as they were heading home after morning prayers at the start of an Islamic holiday. The blast killed at least eleven people, officials said.

The attack occurred in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, which is home to both Taliban militants and nationalists who have waged a decades-long insurgency against the Pakistani government. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.

There were conflicting reports about the death toll from the blast.

Initially, Quetta police chief Ahsan Mahboob said five people were killed in the suicide attack. But Babul Baluch, a member of the Edhi Foundation, which runs ambulance services throughout Pakistan, said 10 people were killed.

The blast also wounded at least 17 people and damaged nearby vehicles and buildings, said Mahboob.

Now, the sources confirmed the death toll of 11 people injuring another 20.

The attack was a somber beginning to Eid al-Fitr, the Islamic holiday that comes at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. In Pakistan, the three-day holiday started

Abdul Jamil, a resident nearby says the blast occurred on Wednesday as hundreds of people were leaving a mosque in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.

The crowd had just finished morning prayers to mark Eid al-Fitr. Jamil says at least 20 people were wounded in the attack.

No group immediately claimed responsibility. A car bomb Wednesday killed at least 11 people and wounded 20 others in the restive southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, police said.

“The bomb was planted in a car and an unidentified man parked it at the site and left.”

Hashim said there had been no immediate claim of responsibility and police could not speculate who could be behind the bombing, although the blast site was in an area populated by minority Shiite Muslims.

Hospital official Rasheed Jamali said there was one woman among the five dead brought to hospital.

Witnesses said several cars parked nearby also caught fire and a house was damaged.

Live television footage showed swirls of thick, black smoke as people ran into the street, some pushing their cars to safety, while ambulances carried away the wounded.

================================================

Eid Mubarak.

I prayed to Allah to give a chance to convey a peaceful Eid greetings to all. But I am unfortunate enough. A painful Eid Mubarak to all.

These days, I am very much unwell. This blog is not updated. It could not be. Who are requesting me again again for this, I am saying sorry to my brothers and sisters. Please make dua for me for a prompt recovery and world peace.

Twin blasts kill 35, injure over 100 in Pakistan

Peace in Real Islam : Peshawar style

A twin bomb attack at a supermarket in Pakistan’s northwest city of Peshawar late Saturday night has so far claimed 35 lives and injured over 100 others, said local officials on Sunday (12th June, 2011).

Rescue team members and hospital sources said that the death toll could further rise as there could be still some people trapped in the debris of the collapsed buildings following the blasts and many of the injured admitted to the local Lady Reading hospital were still in critical conditions.

The attack came at about 23:50 p.m. local time Saturday when a first bomb, which was relatively small in intensity, went off at the Khyber market in the downtown area of Peshawar, leaving three people injured.
As the rescue team rushed to the blast site, a 17-year-old suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle laden with an estimated 10 kg of explosives into the crowds of the people gathering at the site, killing many people right on the spot.
Over 20 shops near the blast site were destroyed. A two-storied hotel collapsed following the huge blast and many people inside the hotel were buried under the debris.

Allah's mirage ...... Allah followers' might ......

Some local media office buildings near the blast site were also damaged. At least one journalist was killed and three other media personnel were injured in the explosion.
The blast also triggered off a big fire, which burned to death at least three people.
During the search operation following the blasts, police have arrested three suspects and the bomb disposal squad has found the head of the suicide bomber on the spot.
Shortly after the twin blasts, Pakistan Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.
Both Pakistani president and prime minister have strongly condemned the terrorist attack.

A forensic investigation for Reality in Islam

Saturday night’s twin bomb attack in Peshawar is the most serious of its kind in Pakistan since this month. Following the killing of the al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden by the U.S. special task forces in Pakistan on May 2, both al-Qaida and Pakistan Taliban have vowed to avenge the death of bin Laden.
Since then Pakistan Taliban have launched a serious of terrorist attacks in the country, including a twin suicide bomb attack at a training center of armed border police forces in Charsadda in northwest Pakistan on May 13, which killed 98 people and injured more than 140 others.
On May 20, a bomb attack was reported in Peshawar. The target was the diplomats of the U.S. consulate in the city. During the attack two U.S. diplomats were injured and several others were killed.
Two days later, on late night of May 22, Pakistan Taliban launched a surprise attack at a naval air base in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi, which killed 13 security personnel, destroyed two U.S.-made P3C Orion surveillance planes and one helicopter.
On May 26, 36 people were killed and over 50 others injured in a suicide blast in Pakistan’s northwest city of Hangu. Most of the killed and injured were police.
Local watchers believe more bigger terrorist attacks could follow in the country in the near future.

US charges 4 Pakistani terrorists in 26/11 Mumbai attack

By Indo Asian News Service | IANS – Tue, Apr 26, 2011 | Late Post

Chicago, April 26 (IANS) US federal prosecutors have added four top Pakistani terrorists tied to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as accused in the case against Pakistani-Canadian LeT operative Tahawwur Rana for helping to plot the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

The four identified as Sajid Mir, Abu Qahafa, Mazhar Iqbal and ‘Major Iqbal’ were charged Monday in US District Court in Chicago, though none of them is in US custody. All four are charged with one count of conspiracy to murder and maim in India, while Mir, Abu Qahafa and Mazhar Iqbal additionally are charged with conspiracy to bomb public places in India.

They also face six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of US citizens in India, which carry maximum sentences of death or life imprisonment.

The revised indictment comes three weeks before the scheduled May 16 trial of Rana, a Canadian citizen who is accused of using his First World Immigration Services business to provide cover to Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley, to scout targets for the Mumbai attack.

Headley, the son of an American mother and Pakistani father, pleaded guilty in March 2010 to 12 criminal counts including aiding and abetting the murder of Americans in Mumbai and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution in a plea deal to escape the death penalty.

Mir, also known as ‘Wasi,’ aka ‘Ibrahim,’ and ‘Sajid Majeed’, who reportedly joined the Pakistan based terror outfit LeT at age 16, allegedly worked as Headley’s handler for two years.

The new indictment says that ‘during the course of attacks in Mumbai, the attackers were in telephonic contact with defendants Sajid Mir, Abu Qahafa and Mazhar Iqbal, all of whom were then located in Pakistan.’

‘More specifically, during the course of the attacks, the attackers were advised to, among other actions, kill hostages, set fires and throw grenades,’ the indictment said.

‘Sajid Mir also sought to arrange the release of a hostage in exchange for the release of a captured attacker.’

It also accused Mir of working with Headley to plan a terrorist attack on a Danish newspaper, which in 2005 published cartoons of Prophet Mohammed touching off

There is also a warrant for Mir’s arrest in India. During the Mumbai attack, Indian police intercepted phone calls between Mir and his terror teams in Mumbai.

Terrorist group Harakat ul Jihad al Islami leader Ilyas Kashmiri and retired Pakistani military man Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed also were charged in a previous indictment but their whereabouts are unknown.

Rana faces life imprisonment if convicted on the charges he provided material support to the Mumbai attackers.

Update : Bombs kill 42 at shrine in Pakistan| Los Angeles Times | April 3, 2011, 11:16 a.m. Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan— Two suicide bombers killed at least 42 people at a shrine in central Pakistan on Sunday, the latest in a series of attacks on places of worship linked to sects opposed by militants.

The blasts took place at the Sakhi Sarwar shrine in Dera Ghazi Khan – (File Photo)

‘Fatal’ blasts at Pakistan Sufi Sakhi Sarwar shrine

BBC || 3 April 2011 Last updated at 13:57 GMT

A Muslim shrine in Pakistan has been hit by two explosions, with unconfirmed reports of casualties.

Officials told reporters at least five people had been killed and 30 more injured in the blasts at a shrine in the Dera Ghazi Khan district of Punjab.

Initial reports said the explosions struck a shrine belonging to Sufis – a minority branch of Islam regarded as heretical by hardliners. Militants attacked another Sufi shrine last year, killing six people.

The latest blasts hit near the Sakhi Sarwar shrine, and devotees were reportedly among the dead and wounded. Thousands of people had been marking the annual festival of Urs at the time of the blasts.

There is no indication of who carried out the attack, although one official said he suspected suicide bombers.

Dawn reports from Multan :

MULTAN: An emergency official says the death toll from a pair of suicide bombings at a shrine in Pakistan has risen to 30.

Thousands of people were visiting the shrine in Dera Ghazi Khan district in Punjab when the bombers struck Sunday.

Emergency coordinator Natiq Hayat says 30 people have been killed and 100 wounded.

Militants believe visiting shrines is against the spirit of Islam and have carried out such attacks in the recent past.

The JUI-F chief indirectly blamed the United States and ‘some other elements’ for the attacks. — File Photo

Pak Islamist leader Fazl escapes second attack in two days

Islamabad: Fri Apr 01 2011 || Pakistan’s hardline JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had a narrow escape for the second day in a row on Thursday, when a suicide bomber targeted his motorcade in the country’s restive northwest, killing at least 12 people and injuring over 30 others. The Maulana escaped unhurt anyway.

The JUI-F chief indirectly blamed the US and ‘some other elements’ for the attacks because, he said, they were unhappy with his criticism of their policies and actions.

“Apparently I was the target; the attackers sprayed my vehicle with bullets,” he told reporters at Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar where he had gone to visit the injured.

“Who is behind these attacks? I don’t know,” he said in reply to a question.

“I am opposing drone attacks, criticising the release of Raymond Davis and US policies and raising voice for the release of Aafia Siddiqui, which are not acceptable to some people.”

The US embassy condemned the attack. “We offer our sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims,” said a statement issued in Islamabad.

A security official said the JUI-F leader had been warned about an assassination plot during his speech at a public meeting in Dera Ismail Khan but the warning was ignored.

“We are working on the group behind the threat to the Maulana in Dera Ismail Khan but it is premature to say anything now,” the official said. “The Maulana has long been on the hit list of the terrorists and he knows it.”

He said a suicide bomber wanted to attack Maulana Fazl in Swabi on Wednesday but security personnel stopped him on suspicion and he blew himself up.

He said he had seen several policemen who were injured by the blast.

Rehman cancelled his meeting in Charsadda after the blast.

A car in which senior JUI leaders Akram Khan Durrani and Azam Swati were travelling too was damaged in the attack, though they escaped unhurt.

Footage on television showed several cars that were damaged by the blast. The walls of a nearby mosque were pitted by ball bearings that were packed into the bomber’s explosive vest.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks so far.

Rehman escaped an attempt on his life on Wednesday as well when a suicide attacker tried to target his motorcade at Swabi in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. That attack killed 10 people, including two policemen.

The attacks have surprised political observers as the JUI is perceived as being pro-Taliban.

Rehman has repeatedly called on the federal government to halt military operations against the militants.

Rehman told the media on Thursday that he had not received any threats. He refused to say who could be behind the two attempts on his life.

The bomber struck just after the motorcade of 57-year-old Rehman, a member of the National Assembly or lower house of Parliament, entered Charsadda town in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, where he was to address a gathering at Darul Uloom Islamia seminary.

The powerful blast occurred near a government office and a private school, witnesses said.

“Twelve people, including two members of Rehman’s security detail and a woman, were killed while over 30 others, including policemen and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) workers, were injured”, officials said.

“I am fine. There was a powerful explosion near my car and the windscreen was shattered. Another car in my motorcade was damaged,” Rehman told the media.

Speculations grow about operation in N. Waziristan

PESHAWAR: The federal government has directed the Fata Disaster Management Authority to prepare a contingency plan for thousands of families likely to be uprooted after a military operation in North Waziristan Agency, an official told Dawn on Saturday.

The official said about 50,000 families (roughly 500,000 individuals) could be displaced from the agency, where speculations about the military operation against militants have been doing the rounds for quite some time.

The army has deployed over 20,000 troops, including two wings of the Frontier Corps, in the agency. The region is regarded as a bastion of Al Qaeda and Taliban.

“The FDMA has received directives from the federal authorities to chalk out a plan in consultation with the United Nations’ agencies and other humanitarian bodies to cope with the displacement,” he said.

Knowledgeable sources said the federal government had not set any timeframe for completion of the contingency plan, but the FDMA had been asked to keep the plan ready.

“We have been asked by the authorities to complete the task as soon as possible, but we have no idea about the timing of a military offensive,” the sources said.

The US government has been pressuring Islamabad, since the Times Square (New York) bomb plot in which a Pakistani national Faisal Shahzad was arrested in May last year, to launch an operation against militant groups, particularly the Haqqani network, to dislodge them from their redoubt in North Waziristan. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed that it had masterminded the car bomb plot.

Islamabad, however, has stuck to the line that it alone would take a decision on the launch of an operation, citing lack of resources as the biggest handicap.

The FDMA, according to officials, had alerted the UN and its satellite organisations to the likelihood of a big displacement in the event of an operation, advising them to make provisions for shelter, food and other assistance.

They said that sites would be identified and selected for relief camps after consultations with the UN and other stakeholders.

According to official estimates, 50 per cent of the families feared to be displaced would take shelter in relief camps and the rest would settle with relatives and in rented houses.

Sources said camps were likely to be set up in neighbouring districts.

About financial resources, they said UN agencies had expressed willingness to foot the bill for tents, food, NFIs, water, sanitation and health. Officials said the average cost of a tent was 310 dollars.

The FDMA is already looking after 148,893 registered displaced families (over 1.1 million individuals) which had been displaced due to violence and subsequent military actions in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata).

About 23,505 families have been living in camps and 125,388 other displaced families have been staying with their relatives.

A recent military action in Mohmand Agency caused the displacement of some 6,000 families. They were accommodated in two camps.

On the other hand, the IDPs displaced from Orakzai and South Waziristan agencies have started returning home.